According to this study carried out on French farmers, researchers from Inserm (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and Pierre and Marie Curie University demonstrate the existence of a correlation between pesticides and disease. of Parkinson’s.
In collaboration with the Mutualité sociale agricole, they studied two groups. The first of 224 patients with Parkinson’s disease and the second made up of 557 healthy people, all of the same age and sex and living in the same department. A questionnaire examined the size of the farms, the types of crops and pesticides used, the number of years and the spreading method. The researchers deduced from this an association between Parkinson’s disease and exposure to pesticides, in particular of the organochlorine type, such as lindane and DDT. These two products were widely used in France between the 1950s and 1990s. They are characterized by persistence in the environment for many years after their use.
What consequences for other populations?
Beyond the role of exposure to pesticides at high levels, these results raise the question of the consequences of exposure to lower doses, for example for the population living near farms. Additional studies are underway to answer this question.
Remember that Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s.